Conservative throne speech scapegoats public servants: union

The Conservative government is using Canada’s public service as “scapegoats” as a way to avoid answering questions about the Senate scandal, the largest public sector union’s president said Thursday.

“This is not about the public service,” said Robyn Benson, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. “This is about the government trying to hide and shy away from their Senate scandal.”

To make matters worse, this “latest attack against public service workers” is also the government “looking to balance the budget on the back of their own workers,” Benson said.

On Wednesday, the government said in its speech from the throne it would “freeze the overall federal budget, which will continue to restrain hiring.” The freeze, which is set to last two years, is part of the government’s push to build a “lean, competent and committed public service,” the speech said.

In addition to the budget freeze, the Conservatives said it would also adjust salaries and benefit packages and reforms to disability and sick-day entitlements are also planned. The goal, the government said, is to get public servants “back to work as quickly as possible.”

Benson disagrees, arguing limiting the public service’s resources will on place added pressure on an already stressed workforce. “It doesn’t make for a great work place when ten people were doing A and B and now you have three people doing the same work load,” she explained.

She’s not alone in her view. On Wednesday, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair called the government’s plan nothing less than a Conservative-led war against public servants.

“It’s a popular thing for the Conservatives and other right wingers to attack public servants. They think that is red meat for their base,” Mulcair told reporters after the speech from the throne. “They tend to forget that those are the people providing public service and that’s a really good thing that Canadians rely upon.”

The government disagrees. Speaking after the throne speech, Treasury Board President Tony Clement said the changes in the public service demonstrated “fiscal restraint,” and reiterated the government’s commitment to create jobs in the private sector.

The Conservative government is also planning to make changes to the Public Service Labour Relations Act a move that caught Benson by surprise. Announcing plans to amend the labour relations act via the speech from the throne is an unprecedented move, she explained.

“This is unprecedented that they… threaten to wreak havoc with our labour relations,” Benson said, adding, though, that she has no idea what those changes might be.

The government has said the amendments would “ensure that the public service is affordable, modern and high-performing.”